Friday, February 18, 2011

The difficulty of being good

Dr Jayprakash Narayanan was manhandled yesterday in AP Assembly over the Telengana issue by MLAs from another party.

He has the wherewithal to state his opinion on the reason for not wanting the formation of Telengana despite the flood of opinion in the contrarian direction. A former distinguished bureaucrat and brilliant demagogue who has given opportunity to young people to join his party and provided them tickets to contest elections purely on the basis of merit. He is one of the rarest of the rare people in the country who has wanted to do something about Indian political scene and managed to make headway by winning a seat in the AP assembly elections in a context dominated by rowdy and milieu of corrupt politicians. There are plenty who have wanted but few who could actually prove their tenacity. Hats off to this person.

There is something terribly wrong about our democracy and if it doesn't get the requisite interest from people at large, we will continue to go on the downslide. Its manifestations are all over the press in the form of scams that are getting unravelled on a regular basis. Our insitutions meant to protect democracy are much sluggish than the people who know how to break laws. This can also be seen from the number of RTI activists who have given up their lives for wanting to make the government more accountable. Its so terrible.

Loksatta Party which he heads still will take years to mature as a sound political group for a variety of reasons but his efforts, commitment for a clean political culture and leadership is all in front of us. We need to figure out if we can also participate in some form and may be support him as well.

2 comments:

I have loads of respect for JP as an individual/administrator, maybe not as a Lok Satta party founder. On a different note -- I always felt that Lok Satta as a party had good ideals and objectives, but then why is the part not as successful as it is supposed to be. Well! one may argue on the basis of political scenario, awareness in the people, gundaraj, etc. But it has been more than 3 yrs i guess, since the party was formed -- and i believe it lacks organizational management. A party at the end of the day cant be limited to just one person - it has to stand for the party values, offerings and services like any organization (profit or non-profit). There has to be a team (cannot be a one-man-show) for any organization to be successful. Today I have a problem not with JP, but the way he has structured the party-- what if JP was not there then what will happen to Lok Satta Party. In which case, on what basis do I caste my vote, isnt that a risk. I strongly believe that JP has to have a team of experienced and energetic young folks who carry similar passion and can lead as well as run the party. Just being good will not get results, in mainstream politcs being strategically good and deriving the results what matters.

I second your thought on the immense need for forming a party beyond JP. I guess the challenge for him has been the difficulty of attracting really sound people since I simply don't believe that any individual is wonderful as a candidate as long as he is young and not maligned. It takes a lot to win elections in a complex electoral terrain like India.

This is a challege for JP as much as it is something for people like probably me and you to reflect upon on how can we really make it happen?